Must-Watch Sci Fi Movies: Them! (1954)

Must-Watch Sci Fi Movies: Ongoing series of posts looking at sci fi and fantasy films that best represent the genre and that should be on your must-watch list.

What Is It?

Two policemen find a young girl wandering alone in the New Mexico desert in a state of shock. They search for her family and find the camper, but it has been ripped apart, and they find no other people there. FBI agent Robert Graham arrives to help with the investigation, and they discover a strange animal track near the camper, which they take an impression of. This prompts two entomologists to join the investigation, the senior Dr. Harold Medford and his daughter, Dr. Pat Medford. The elder scientist has a theory that the nuclear testing done in the area may have caused ants to mutate to incredibly large sizes, and this proves true as several giant ants attack them when they go to investigate the site of the camper. They must then deal with these giant insects before they spread across the country and the world, bringing about the extinction of humankind.

Cast: James Arness, James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon

Crew: Gordon Douglas (Director), David Weisbart (Producer), George Worthing Yates (Story) Ted Sherdeman (Screenplay), Russell Hughes (Screenplay)

Original Release: 1954

Why Is It a Must-Watch Movie?

Them! transcended its B-movie trappings and delivered a first-rate science fiction film that tapped into the underlying nuclear paranoia of the time while also offering a well-written cautionary tale.

A Closer Look:

1954 was an important year for sci-fi cinema as it gave us two of the first and most influential movies to feature monsters mutated by radiation. In Japan, Godzilla assaulted theaters (and Tokyo), and in the United States we had the giant ants of Them! on the loose. And while these films presented two very different sides of the same coin, they both offered cautionary tales dealing with the consequences of the nuclear age. That struck a nerve with audiences at that time, and the message still resonates today.

While Godzilla gave us a more straightforward tale of a monster running amok in the countryside and the big city, Them! took a slightly different approach. The movie starts as a mystery, with the local police officers, Ben Peterson and Ed Blackburn, finding the girl wandering in the desert and then finding her family’s gutted camper, which defies any normal explanation. From that point, mystery upon mystery follows, and we feel the ominous presence of some unseen threat (enhanced by the eerie, unexplained sounds emitted by the off-screen ants that come and go). It’s well over one-third of the way into the movie before we actually see one of the arthropods, but by that time the audience is already sitting on the edge of its seats because of the buildup that has preceded the arrival of the movie’s main antagonist.

And while this approach may have been driven in part by budgetary constraints, it was still a masterful way to draw the audience into the movie and set the foreboding, pre-apocalyptic tone that would carry the film to its end. This movie definitely struck a nerve with its contemporary audience, in part because of the nuclear fears that were part of the nation’s zeitgeist at the time. But it did not act on the subconscious level as much as another classic from that era, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It succeeded more because it was a very well-written, tightly directed science fiction thriller, something very rare at a time when the genre was considered mostly kiddie matinee fodder.

Of course, you have to take into account the excellent performances of the cast as well. A young James Arness (between his roles as a walking veggie monster in The Thing and his iconic run as Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke) delivered a standout performance as FBI agent Robert Graham. He provides the film with its central, strong lead, and the rest of the cast mostly revolves around him. But in an unexpected move for the time, he had a strong female lead next to him who nearly stole the show. Joan Weldon plays the younger Dr. Medford with a tangible presence felt the moment she first appears onscreen. Far from the helpless female role so common in genre films and offering much more than simple eye candy, Weldon made her mark in what was considered a man’s world at the time. Sadly, her performance has unfortunately gone mostly unsung despite her strong representation of women in early sci-fi films. The rest of the main cast held their own as well, with James Whitmore complementing Arness’ lead role and Edmund Gwenn giving us some good—though less manic—Walter Bishop moments as the elder Dr. Medford. And also watch for a brief appearance by Leonard Nimoy as an Army sergeant and Fess Parker as a pilot who has a close encounter with the ants.

And speaking of those six-legged critters, no commentary would be complete without mentioning their appearance in the film. Special effects were still pretty rudimentary at the time, but the production crew succeeded in creating some of the most memorable movie monsters of all time on the limited budget available to them. They could have gone the stop-motion route or used footage of real ants against a blue screen. Instead, they created life-size mechanical ants that could interact directly with the actors with no additional visual trickery needed. They built one full-sized version and several partial mock-ups as well.

And while the CGI-gorged audiences of today may look at these as quaint examples of the special effects industry in its infancy, I still recall being terrified by them as a child and even today look upon them as first-rate movie monsters. Sure, any modern-day remake of Them! (more on that below) would give us thousands, if not millions, of the arthropods running across the screen. But director Gordon Douglas’ decision to keep them mostly offscreen as an ominous, unseen threat, with only a few brief glimpses, emphasizes their menace that much more.

Them! gave us a superior science fiction movie, and not just because of its special effects, which were top-notch for their time. It delivered a riveting story that carried a cautionary tale with it, one that the elder Dr. Medford stated explicitly in his closing monologue. And though that moment may have been somewhat preachy and melodramatic, a sci-fi film could still pull it off at the time. What would now sound pretentious and pedantic came across as foreboding and prophetic in a black-and-white movie from the ’50s. And while many more movies would try to follow the example of Them!, very few would come anywhere close to this early film that tackled the many hazards of our nuclear ambitions with style.

Why Was There No Sequel?

Them! pulled in over $2 million in theater rentals at the time, and while I have not been able to find any budget information for the film, that should have counted as a success. Many may wonder why it never had a follow-up in theaters, but that was a different era when sequels were not as common. Other monster films did generate multiple entries at the time, like Creature from the Black Lagoon, and of course Godzilla had multiple sequels that continue today. But Them! was on the more costly side to produce, and it was left as a one-and-done film in the genre. And that may have been for the best because it was a classic for its time and did not need to be watered down by ersatz sequels.

Should It Be Rebooted?

I would say no, but Hollywood is moving forward with a reboot of the film anyway. I understand the desire to update Them! for modern audiences, and it could work if done properly. But the minimalist approach of the original film is what made it so successful, building tension throughout and keeping the audience glued to the screen in anticipation. In the CGI era, the temptation will be to have millions of ants filling the screen, and the special effects can easily overwhelm the story, as we see with many of today’s bloated blockbusters.

Film composer Michael Giacchino has been pegged as the director of the reboot, and he previously helmed the promising MCU Werewolf by Night special for Disney+ (filmed mostly in black and white). So perhaps he will be a good choice and respect the source material while also revising the movie for modern audiences. But I fear that Hollywood executives will push this one to CGI overload and fail to capture the spirit of the original.

Interesting Facts:

Them! was originally planned as a 3D color film. But after a few test shots were completed, the 3D camera rig broke down and the decision was made to proceed with filming in black-and-white.

Them! hit theaters in June of 1954 so it actually preceded Godzilla as the first of the nuclear monster films as the Japanese production debuted in October of 1954.

Where Can You Watch It?

The movie has been released on DVD and Blu-ray and it is also available for purchase VOD. You can watch it for free (with ads) on Tubi and Fawesome.

25 Must-Watch Science Fiction and Fantasy Movies

So many science fiction and fantasy movies and so little time. Metropolis, King Kong, War of the Worlds, Fantastic Voyage, Star Wars, The Terminator, The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Inception . . . Plan 9 From Outer Space . . . and so many, many more. Where to start and which ones to watch? Well that’s what this book is here to help you with. It may not cover all science fiction movies, and not even all of those mentioned above, but it gives you a heck of a good start starting point. This book begins with 1927’s Metropolis and then treks through 24 more genre films ending with 2009’s Moon to give you an extensive look at some of the best of the best of science fiction and fantasy cinema. Each entry includes a synopsis, review/commentary, cast and crew information, as well as a few nuggets of trivia relating to the films. Whether you are new to the genre and trying to figure out where to get started or a grizzled veteran who has logged many hours in the cinema watching sci fi, 25 Must Watch Science Fiction and Fantasy Movies is sure to entertain. And even if you have already seen the movies covered in the book, there’s a good chance you could walk away knowing a little bit (or maybe even a lot) more about these films than you did previously.